May 6, 2016 - First, can both Windows and Mac access the same NAS (most likely freeNAS)? And if so, could they both work off the NAS in the same manner.
Please help me set up my new NAS. I have my head around the RAID setup (I think) and Time Machine, but I have questions. Setup:. Synology DS212j NAS. Macbook Air with OSX 10.8.
Windows laptop (running 7, soon to be 8). Xbox 360.
Raspberry XMBC Needs:. Individual user folders accessible from both laptops for me and mrsbunk under our own user accounts. Shared folder with read/write accessible by both of us for adding photos, music, tv and films. Media to be accessible to Xbox and XMBC.
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Questions:. What network filesystem do I need to set up? What are they?! Do I need more than one? Are there performance/security issues I need to know about?. The box does DNLA. Should I turn this on for media sharing, or will the shared folders suffice?.
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Is there a Time Machine equivalent for the Windows laptop I should be using?. Should I set the box to DHCP, or fix an IP address. What do I need to watch out for?
What else do I need to know? Forgive me for any skewed terminology, teach me!
Thank you for keeping it simple. What network filesystem do I need to set up? SMB has traditionally been used in Windows environments but these days it also has good support on other platforms. Enabling the service will allow you to access files on the NAS from both your Mac and your Windows laptop.
You'll need to configure users/groups first though. When you say AFS I think you mean AFP since the Synology products do not support AFS. AFP is Apple's proprietary standard loosely similar to SMB but it doesn't have widespread support. You will probably have to enable it anyway though since you are using Time Machine. Don't bother with NFS as it is slower (due to the overheads involved and the limited resources of the NAS) and has no real advantages for your situation. The box does DNLA.
Should I turn this on for media sharing, or will the shared folders suffice? If you want to be able to play content on your XBOX you can use the built in UPnP/DLNA media server, or there are several third party applications (known as 'packages') available that do the same thing. Bear in mind that this type of device cannot transcode video on demand, so you need to make sure that everything is in an appropriate format. Is there a Time Machine equivalent for the Windows laptop I should be using? It would be very difficult to recommend a direct alternative to Time Machine.
You are best to research this yourself so that you can be sure that you get the exact functionality you need. Most commercial options out there offer a trial of some sort. I would like to point out that Windows has some backup features built in, particularly in the Ultimate, Business and Enterprise versions, although the end result is not as sophisticated as Time Machine. Should I set the box to DHCP, or fix an IP address. What do I need to watch out for? I'm not sure what advantage you would get from using a fixed IP address. Normally you would access the NAS by hostname, e.g.
Smb://diskstation in OS X or diskstation in Windows. In some cases it may not be possible to use the friendly name in which case choosing a static IP might make more sense. What else do I need to know?
Ultimately you might find some useful information within the Tutorial section of the Synology web site:. The same site also has some forums where people are generally very helpful. Also Synology release new firmware quite frequently so if you encounter any compatibility issues, e.g. Relating to newer versions of OS X, then you may need to upgrade it.
Stuartr, The short answer is: Don't worry. The proper style (for this application) of NAS will connect over your ethernet. The exact format of the hard drive dosen't matter.
Your computer or the SONOS system will ask for a file, and the file will be supplied, you don't need to worry about the exact details. The firewire or USB style of external hard drive is not a great idea for this application because they must be connected to computer and the computer must be running whenever you use your SONOS system. In some cases these firewire or USB drives can be connected directly to another drive (for backup or expansion). In this case the drive must be formatted to match the format expected by the primary drive. FInally, there are some differences in file name formats between PC's and Mac's. There is a option on the NAS setup for 'PC', 'Mac', or 'Both' file name formats.
In your case, choose 'Both'. As you build your library, avoid using a period as part of a file name. If you are using a Linksys WRT54G version 6 router, there are some Mac issues. Buzz is right, the format of the drive is unimportant.
What is important is the file sharing protocol. There are several in common use today, but the 3 most relevant ones are: SMB/CIFS - (Server Message Block/Common Internet Filing System) - Designed by Microsoft and most commonly used by Windows systems NFS - (Network Filing System) Most commonly used by Linux/Unix systems AFP - (Apple Filing Protocol) self explanatory! Windows is highly insular and xenophobic (I think 'closed' is a very appropriate term) and can normally only read SMB/CIFS file shares. Apple and Linux are far more flexible and can read most formats, including SMB/CIFS. For this reason all common NAS devices will support SMB/CIFS as a minimum on the basis it is the lowest common denominator that pretty much everything will read. Many (like the Infrant series) will also serve NFS and AFP as well as some others (WebDAV, rsync, ftp, http) but you don't need to worry about those.
Cheers, Keith. I was seriously looking into a high end NAS solution but couldn't justify the expense of that plus the cost of the Sonos system.
I ended getting a 250GIG Western Digital NetCenter for under US$200. The write speed seems a little on the sluggish side but as an interim solution it does the job. I have a few PCs on my network and one mac that has iTunes on it that is primarily only used for music management and iPos synching. I haven't had any problems with any of my machines being able to access the NAS file shares. What I was talking about in my post was the network protocol, that is used for accessing a shared drive across a network. In this case the local drive format is unimportant, but the network protocol used is key.
If you are talking about a locally connected drive (USB, SATA,PATA, firewire), then the drive format IS important. In this case, I would format it as FAT32. FAT32 is kind of the lowest common denominator in drive formats.
Pretty much anything should read it these days. (It may already be formatted in FAT32. For compatibility, most drive manufacturers format in FAT32 by default before they ship).
Cheers, Keith.
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